SLOPPY: Indie devs say AAA developers are making silly mistakes with their first forays into VR

Indie game makers believe their big name counterparts are failing to learn the lessons of VR and are making 'mistakes' in their new virtual titles.

After a slew of triple-A brands were unveiled at E3 for virtual reality headsets, there is concern the big developers aren't learning from indies who have more experience designing for VR.

And their upcoming blockbuster winter hits are more likely to end up being big flops, they fear.

For example, there were complaints the Resident Evil VR demo was making people feel sick and failed to address nausea in the game.

There was also criticism of a disconnect between the VR aspect of Batman Arkham And your limited ability to control the batman in the game, ruining the experience for some.

PlayStation VR up close - Coming October 2016

PlayStation's VR headset is coming this October priced £349.99. Get your best look at the device here.

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Sony PlayStation VR up close - Coming 2016

Overall, many of the big name games given a VR overhaul seemed like taster titles, mini games, rather than the fully fledged hits were used to.

Indie developers are now urging the big budget game makers to learn from those in the business with most experience in VR ahead of the October launch of the Playstation VR headset.

“We’d have loved it if these new titles were more like a long-form, fully-fledged game rather than more limited mini experiences, especially as that’s not what gamers have come to expect from those franchises,” says nDreams co-founder, Patrick O’Luanaigh, whose VR hit The Assembly is wowing the industry.

”It does feel as though some of these developers haven’t been paying attention to a lot of the advances made and best practice techniques established by the VR development community over the last 18 months.”

Virtual reality developer Joe Radak agrees. He said: “The E3 demos showed that a lot of the AAA companies are still learning VR’s capabilities and that they’re behind the indie developers right now.

“That’s not to say that the indies have fully discovered all of VR’s capabilities yet either, but the AAA companies are making mistakes that almost all the indie developers have already made, learned from and shared with each other – specifically looking at locomotion methods and what makes ‘fun’ VR gameplay.

"If the AAA publishers took some time to talk with small indie devs, like those behind Fantastic Contraption, Chronos, Budget Cuts, Cosmic Trip and many others, that would go a long way for the industry”.